Shiny Happy Players Lard 12-9-10

Douglas LeeDec 9, 2010 7:15 AM

Good Morning, Broncos fans. Brian Dawkins, Demaryius Thomas and Spencer Larsen have already been declared out for Sunday's game. Andre' Goodman and Darcel McBath were limited participants in yesterday's practice, the first run by new interim coach Eric Studesville. Apparently Studesville is more of a motivator type than Josh McDaniels, and he extended an olive branch to the players yesterday by having them practice without pads.

Has anyone noticed that of Denver's 9 losses, 8 of them have come at the hands of teams that currently have 6 wins or more? On Sunday, the Broncos will face the worst team they've played all year in the Cardinals, and a fifth-round rookie QB in John Skelton. So if Denver wins, surely it will be because Studesville took the pads off, because he smiles more than McDaniels, and happier players are better players? Sounds like a neat little DP narrative...

Woody makes the case for John Elway, who acknowledges that he is interested in a full-time role within the Broncos' hierarchy.

Interestingly, Legwold cites "some in the organization" who say that the Broncos wanted to keep Jim Goodman around to run the personnel department when he was supposedly run out of town by the evil Josh McDaniels. The implication is clearly that either Bowlen fired Goodman, or Goodman left on his own accord, rather than McDaniels having made a power play. Funny - why did we never hear this side of things before?

Among Klis' notes, Mike McCoy will be calling the plays on Sunday; plus he takes a shot at the "New England Way." How much of that garbage is coming our way in the next year?

Thomas George on his interview with Pat Bowlen two weekends ago, and some player insight into Josh McDaniels' treatment of the team:

He was very hands on and did a lot of yelling. Guys prefer a coach who lets his assistants do more of that and he oversees things. He had a tough time really knowing how to reach players.

Studesville brought a sunny disposition to practice yesterday, apparently a contrast to McDaniels' more business-like approach.

Related

After reading George&#8217s article, I came away with a similar conclusion as he did in comparing McDaniel&#8217s tenure in Denver to Bellichek&#8217s tenure in Cleveland. Josh will mellow and learn to delegate and/or to work within an organizational structure that allows him to do what he does best. Too bad the ball was fumbled early in 2009 when the opportunity came up to define the boundaries while McDaniels was new on the job and the Goodmans were both here. Opportunity lost!! That is really on Pat Bowlen and Joe Ellis&#8217 heads.

IMO Josh McDaniels would still be HC here and the Broncos would have been more successful in their rebuild. There were misses in the 2009 draft that the Goodman&#8217s input would have avoided.

Going forward: bring Elway aboard is a step in the right direction. There needs to be evaluations of different structures that might work here and then a concerted effort to put that in place with competent people in each position.

I once sought a job with NIKE in Beaverton, OR. Their idea was not in placing you in a particular job that you thought you were qualified to do - but rather to put you in the position where they thought that you would be most successful - both for you and for the company.

Thanks again, Doug. Looking forward to more lard tomorrow.

Posted by BlackKnight on 2010-12-10 08:28:54

@BroncosLady, et. al.

Simply put: The Broncos got away with being a sloppy organization with regards to personnel for a very, very long time. But now they have to professionalize the efforts because the game and the league have simply gotten more sophisticated. Those of us who work in dynamic and complex fields see this sort of evolution regularly.

On an unrelated note, I find it amusing that the pendulum has now swung back to &#8220no pads and smiles&#8221. I recall, oh, I dunno, about 1.5 years ago, the problem with the Broncos was that they were soft. Then they were tough. And then McDaniels got fired.

Any takers on how long before the players are considered &#8220too soft&#8221 again? I say it&#8217s one blow out loss away&#8230

As others have said&#8212this is the problem with a team that has no identity. We don&#8217t even know what kinds of practices to run because we don&#8217t have a sustained and consistent coaching culture.

Posted by jvill on 2010-12-09 19:41:53

BroncosLady is correct. I think a mistake may have been made in naming Xanders the GM and that it might have worked better to have the elder Goodman take that title as well until both Xanders and the younger Goodman could be groomed into quality decision makers. And it should have been made clear that Jim Goodman had that final say&#8230 Xanders is a good numbers guy but appears to be lacking a bit in personnel evaluation. The younger Goodman might have become a better personnel guy by learning from his father.

Posted by Bob Morris on 2010-12-09 19:23:03

Hi Doug - Regarding the Goodmans, my understanding was that Jim was always held in high regard by the organization however there were issues with his son that accelerated in the power grab that occurred after Mike Shanahan&#8217s departure. I believe there was headbumping with both Brian Xanders and Josh McDaniels. When the decision was made to release Jeff the executives in charge (Joe Ellis and/or Pat Bowlen) felt it would be too awkward to fire the son and keep the father so they were both released, as was another son who was a scout. Pat&#8217s comment was something to the effect that he wanted Jim to stay but knew Jim wouldn&#8217t be happy continuing to work for the Broncos given the circumstances. The textbook example of why nepotism in the NFL always sets my teeth on edge. <img alt="vampire" height="19" src="http://www.singernet.com/images/smileys/vampire.gif" style="border:0;" width="19">

The Denver Post did cover this however because it was in the early days of the McDaniels love fest it probably didn&#8217t register with too many fans.

Posted by BroncosLady on 2010-12-09 18:00:16

You go, Chibronx!!!

I&#8217m glad you brought up Marshall. No player/situation is more symbolic of the shameless and surreal flavor of anti-McD sentiment. Here&#8217s a guy that had basically worn out his welcome with the vast majority of the fan base and Denver media right up to the moment that it became more fashionable to despise McD. Add to that the fact that Brandon Lloyd has been emphatically more productive in 2010 than BM in ANY season he played as a Bronco, and throw the fact that BM hasn&#8217t been a difference maker in Miami&#8212in fact, Miami&#8217s most dynamic offensive game of the season happened in Marshall&#8217s absence&#8212and it doesn&#8217t take a genius to conclude that Marshall does not belong on any McD-personnel-blunder list. But, alas, heeeeee&#8217s ba-Ack&#8230

The Broncos let the tail wag the dog, and the main problem with that is that the fan base is sort of like Philly&#8217s, without the sophistication&#8230

Posted by Drewthorn on 2010-12-09 17:54:54

Doug appreciate your ability to put these things all together. I noticed another sight took your George interview and put it on their front page. Anyways, I do notice that Denver has lost to good teams and they are 1-6 in close games. for that reason I felt Denver could win out even with Josh as HC and I don&#8217t think it is impossible now. Even though I am torn if they win because it gives a positive energy to the team but it lowers their draft position.

Posted by sleepyteak on 2010-12-09 16:34:23

Nice rant, chibronx. You raise a good point.

Posted by RalphW on 2010-12-09 16:26:12

Thanks, Doug. Woody&#8217s article about bringing in Elway is promising to me because, well, it&#8217s a good way to shut up Woody and buy the fans some time. The team has a huge problem now because it&#8217s empowered the mob and made nods towards bringing back the good &#8216ol days of 8-8, 10-6. Elway&#8217s presence would throw them a bone and buy time. And oh, man, time is important.

His interview with Gary Miller and Vic Lombardi was interesting, because the guy clearly knew his limits. He was confident the team needed a strong GM, and he was confident it would never ever be him. But he basically said he&#8217d be happy to help find that guy, if that&#8217s what it took. Now, he doesn&#8217t seem to be enough of a student of the game to be ideal for that search. But if his presence ensures that a GM is hired&#8212and, even better, that the GM is given TIME TIME TIME&#8212then I say full-steam ahead. This is how little I trust management and the fans right now. I&#8217d be happy to hire a non-football guy to run the team, if only because I knew he couldn&#8217t be run out of town. Sad days.

As for Drew&#8217s comment? Honestly&#8212I think there is no advantage in winning for the rest of the year. None. Expectations need to be driven into the dirt. Never mind that I really want a high pick, esp. if there&#8217s a rookie pay scale. But if the team loses out after its evil nemisis has been fired and gets like the second pick in the draft, the mob could be silenced AT LEAST through the end of a 1-3 start next September.

More broadly, I&#8217m coming around to the idea of scapegoating McDaniels. Start Josh McDaniels hate clubs. Burn effigies. Talk up the part where he destroyed a sure-fire Superbowl team full of Brandon Marshalls who will get to 100 career touchdowns if they can last 100 seasons. Pretend that Nate Webster and DeWayne Robertson and Marquand Manuel were teh awesome and unfairlee runned outta towne by McDestroyerOfTehAwesomes, then say solemly that, sure, we all know that 35-year-old interior OLs who weight 285 are the weight to win today, but McPoopie wrecked that forever, so we&#8217re going to try something else.

Say that it will obviously take 27 years to recover. Use neologisms like &#8220Patroncos&#8221 and &#8220McJayGate&#8221 liberally, and make a huge deal of cutting Lonnie Paxton and overpaying Mike Leach. Take the fans&#8217 eyes off the team and the rebuilding process. Let them obsess on the old coach, drool over Elway, and ignore the faceless GM who&#8217s in the background and insulated from their outbursts.

Oy. This turned into a rant&#8212and a fun one!&#8212but I&#8217m serious about the core point. If Elway is the face of the team, Woody will feel ownership of what happens and the fans won&#8217t lynch him. He knows his limits. If that&#8217s what it takes to quiet the idiots, sign me up.

Posted by Chibronx on 2010-12-09 16:06:08

Maybe that&#8217s why McD was fired before the end of the season and Studesville, the RB coach elevated to head coach&#8230to make sure the Broncos didn&#8217t win anymore games this year and ensure a good draft position.

Posted by NDbronco on 2010-12-09 16:00:11

Thomsas George on his interview with Pat Bowlen two weeks ago is very interesting. He provieds another reason to be frightened about Ellis.

Posted by bradley on 2010-12-09 15:39:15

I wonder what the upside of winning is at this point this season. Not saying I&#8217ll root for the Broncos to lose, but say they win out? It complicates the long term decision on Studesville, and it drops them into that no-mans land in the draft where, say, the 12th guy isn&#8217t all that much more promising than the 25th.

Posted by Drewthorn on 2010-12-09 15:05:24

Bring on the Cards!

Posted by RalphW on 2010-12-09 15:01:42

Studesville sounds like he&#8217s going to go the Will Farrell way in Semi-Pro&#8230he&#8217s all &#8220ELE&#8230everybody love everybody&#8221

Posted by NDbronco on 2010-12-09 14:57:49

The DP has the best of all worlds right now. If the team wins, it is because Belichick&#8217s mini-me is gone, and if they lose it is because of the irreparable damage done in the past couple years. We all ought to man up and admit that the DP did a major civic service by driving the New Englanders from the temple, because if we disagree with narrative we risk having our blood pressure rise every time Woody et al. write a self-congratulatory article about the departure of McD. The back-patting will be at least a daily occurrence until a new coach is hired, and then a weekly feature until Woody gets mad again.

Posted by DCJ on 2010-12-09 14:49:00

I read the Pats also have the Panthers 2nd rd pick. I forgot about that. 3 picks in the top 33.

Yeah, the NE way is terrible.

It&#8217ll be fascinating how the new coach and hopefully management work around the draft board&#8230if at all.

Posted by Orange and Blue on 2010-12-09 14:31:08

Thanks, Doug. George&#8217s account is sobering. I know players aren&#8217t generally in a position to be critical of the HC while he is their HC. If the sentiment of the players he&#8217s interviewed is pervasive, that tells me that our players are either damned good actors/poker players, or they are good character guys that respect the office of the head coach even if there are rough edges to his personality. That was undoubtedly true of many of our best players during Shanahan&#8217s regime as well, and it made/makes those guys easy to root for.

I still like Josh&#8212he&#8217s a young guy, and he can learn from this. He&#8217s far from being beyond redemption. But I can&#8217t deny I&#8217m starting to feel there is a lightness settling in on the team this week that they are all beginning to acknowledge.